-Scroll.in For the first time, a Hindi state – Madhya Pradesh – has complained about migrants taking away jobs. Hours after taking oath as the new chief minister of Madhya Pradesh on December 18, Kamal Nath declared that outsiders were grabbing jobs meant for locals. “People from states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh come here and local people don’t get jobs,” he said. His government went on to issue an executive order...

Passionate about the deepening of agrarian crisis, quite often journalists and media persons cite figures related to farm suicide (as provided by the National Crime Records Bureau) in order to draw the attention of the readers. They do so in the following ways: * Compare the absolute number of farm suicides (viz. suicide by cultivators + suicide by agricultural labourers) across regions/ states for a particular time point or time period...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday expanded the scope of its game-changer Ujjwala free LPG connection scheme to all poor households instead of BPL (below poverty line) families identified by the 2011 socio-economic caste census and a set of other categories. Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the step approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will lift LPG penetration to 100% households from 90% at present. He...

Just a few days ahead of the Kisan Mukti March in Delhi NCR, the provisional results of the Agriculture Census 2015-16 became available in the public domain. The report, among other things, highlights the long-term problems affecting Indian agriculture including fragmentation of land holdings (particularly the marginal and small ones) and shrinking average size of farm land. The provisional results of the latest Agriculture Census reveal that at the national level...

-The Indian Express Gender equality is key to food security. But policymakers don’t seem to recognise that Countries globally, including India, have agreed to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), launched by the UNDP in 2016 as “a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity”. Among the 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030, SDG 5...